Like many of America’s best, brightest, most ambitious—and yes, ego-driven—he was once drawn to a bustling, thriving capital city that he now claims to revile. Washington is the easiest of all targets in America: It taxes, it spends, it fights, it shuts down and it’s full of thousands upon thousands of bureaucrats who, according to legend, do nothing but make life harder in “real America.”

It is also my home, and a city well worth defending. While native Washingtonians have grown accustomed to the frequent pot shots from sanctimonious haters, there’s something pernicious about facile and self-serving stereotypes that leave readers with less—not more—understanding of their government. Particularly when they’re reinforced by people who should know better.

“Washington is an endless maze of funhouse mirrors,” Youngman writes. No. You might not always like what you see, but This Town is a mirror of America—not a dystopian Hunger Games capital, but the nerve center of a dynamic, successful experiment in civil society. It is the swap meet for representatives of farmers, miners, manufacturers, truckers, tech innovators and, yes, moneychangers. Most journalists come here from cities and towns across America, bringing with them the values of their communities and their varied experiences.

Sure, Washington attracts climbers, socialites and folks who jockey for handshake position at weddings, bar mitzvahs and funerals—not to mention an endless line of whiners who love to recall just how great things were back home in the city, town, suburb or exurb they couldn’t wait to leave. Most of all, though, it draws people who want to be part of the debates that shape our democracy. The vast majority of them don’t spend their nights at the Hay Adams hotel bar trying to gain power through osmosis and won’t ever ride on Air Force One. All of which brings me to another canard: Washingtonians aren’t real people.